PCHS Eagles play their hearts out against Lazbuddie

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, September 5, 2008

After Plainview Christian's 15th consecutive loss to Lazbuddie on Friday afternoon at Eagle Field, Steve Reese couldn't have been prouder of his team, calling them "little warriors."

Before long, the coach hopes to be able to refer to them as "little winners."

"I'm as proud of them as can be . . . they played their hearts out," Reese said after the Eagles' 42-13 defeat. "We're a little undermanned, but they worked hard as usual."

And Reese believes if they keep working hard and showing improvement, the Eagles soon will post their first victory since the fourth-to-last game of the 2006 season.

"There's definitely have a victory in the future for these guys," he said.

The Eagles (0-2) actually led in Friday's game, up 13-2. But the Longhorns (1-1) regrouped and pitched a shutout the rest of the way while also getting on a roll on offense. Lazbuddie led 22-13 by halftime then put up 24 points in the third quarter to put it out of reach.

With only nine players, Reese thought conditioning played a big factor in the six-man game. Lazbuddie suited up an even dozen.

"With nine boys you have to be in tremendous, tremendous shape," he said. "That's something we'll continue to work on, conditioning as well as timing.

"But they showed a great amount of improvement this week."

Coming off a season-opening 53-8 loss to Cotton Center, the Elks got off to a slow start against Lazbuddie (1-1), which was blanked by Whiteface last week, 50-0.

Plainview Christian had trouble finding the handle on the opening kickoff and the Longhorns tackled the return man in the endzone for a safety.

The Eagles came right back with a big play of their own on the ensuing free kick when Justin Perez recovered the live ball for the first of several big plays for the junior.

That led to a 26-yard touchdown run by senior fullback Tim Hannabas, and after Andrew Morales threw to Josh Williams for the extra-point, Plainview Christian was ahead 7-2.

Perez made another big play when he intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown. Although a penalty on the return wiped out the touchdown, the Eagles still marched down the field until Hannabas took it in from three yards out, making it 13-2.

The game's fast and furious pace continued when Lazbuddie returned the kickoff 45 yards for a touchdown, the first of seven straight scores for the 'Horns.

Plainview Christian's offense, meanwhile, stalled the rest of the game.

"We were having pretty good blocking, but the second quarter our blocking was breaking down," said Hannabas, who finished with 117 yards rushing on 21 carries.

Lazbuddie scored twice in the second quarter, three times in the third and once in the fourth, mostly on long runs.

Still, Perez, who plays running back on offense and in the secondary on defense, felt the Eagles did a better job on defense than they did a week earlier.

"We were not really prepared last week, but we gave all we had today," he said. "Last week we had problems with our defense, mainly outside containment. We did a lot better job today."

Reese and his players are looking forward to the rest of the season, starting with Friday's 7:30 p.m. game against Guthrie, which defeated Harrold, 39-28.

"We'll come back next week and give it to them again," Reese said.

"We're looking to get better each week," Perez added. "We have to keep on working hard."

Hannabas said it's the "little things" the Eagles must focus on, such as outside containment and tackling.

"We did a whole lot better job this week," said the defensive lineman. "We're focusing on what needs to get down and how to get it done."

Hannabas, who said he heard that Guthrie is "a young team," thinks a victory is ahead for Plainview Christian.

"I'm real optimistic about our future," he said. "We had a rough start but we're just starting to get our feet on the ground."